The scandal of “stolen” children: the drift of a French association at the heart of a judicial investigation

The association Rayon de soleil for foreign children, still approved by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in five countries, is of interest to French justice for its activities in Mali in the 1990s. Similar cases have been listed in Romania and the Central African Republic.

It is a first relief after years of despised combat. On September 6, the Paris court called for the opening of an investigation for concealment of fraud following a complaint filed in June 2020 by nine French people adopted in Mali against their adoption organization and their former correspondent in Bamako: Sunbeam of the foreign child (RDSEE) and Danielle Boudault.

All criticize this French organization, still approved by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in five countries (Bulgaria, Chile, China, South Korea and India), of having implemented "stratagems" to allow "the circumvention of the law with the aim of having them adopted in France, between 1989 and 1996, thus deceiving their parents, both biological and adoptive . To the first, this association would have promised a temporary stay in France for the children. To the latter, RDSEE would have assured that the little Malians had been abandoned by their families of origin.

For five years, Le Monde investigated this association, one of the most important French organizations responsible for the adoption of more than 7,000 children around the world. In Mali but also in the Central African Republic, Madagascar, Haiti, Peru and Romania, RDSEE is suspected of having had children adopted who should not have been, to satisfy international adoption requests. French couples.